Team England has endured a winter of sweeping changes and retirement denials but the squad’s singles and doubles players will set off this weekend for back-to-back Super Series openers in Korea and Malaysia in buoyant mood.

Last month, England lost Donna Kellogg, the doubles specialist, and Jill Pittard, the national women’s singles champion, to retirement. Nathan Robertson also scoffed at suggestions that he was about to step off court while men’s doubles pair Chris Adcock and Robert Blair denied splitting up and will play together for one more year.

With 50, 310 points, Vietnamese top badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh still remains his 11th position in the latest rankings of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) after an unsuccessful December.

Minh dropped out of the world top ten just days before the opening of the 25th Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in Laos early last month. Number 2-seeded Minh failed to enter the semi-finals at SEA Games 25, undermining his efforts to keep his ranking.

The leading world badminton player is still Lee Chong Wei, from Malaysia. However, Minh will have a chance to improve his ranking when he attends the Korea Open championship in the Republic of Korea slated for January 12.

After enduring one of its worst years in history last season, the Indonesian Badminton Association is doing everything in its power to avoid a repeat in 2010.

Its approach is a familiar one, though, as the association, also known as the PBSI, plans to keep its national shuttlers in their training camp and hold them out of the Super Series opener, the Korea Open on Jan. 12-17.

Indonesia head coach Christian Hadinata said the shuttlers needed more time to recover after having only returned to training in Cipayung this week following their post-Southeast Asian Games break. Instead, the national team will make its season debut at the Malaysia Open on Jan. 19-24.

PETALING JAYA: Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong took part in a total of 14 international tournaments last year while Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari-Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif could have matched their team-mates if not for injuries.

However, it will be the other way round for the elite doubles pairs as their participation, especially in the Super Series events, will be scaled down in view of the major tournaments in store for them this year.

There are four major events this year – the Thomas Cup Finals in Kuala Lumpur in May, the World Championships in Paris in August, the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in October and the Asian Games in Guangzhou in December.